"Redoubtable ultimately derives from Indo-European root *dwo*-, meaning two."
The word in russian language - dva,(transliterated) - meaning two, pronounced - [d-vah].
Are we a proud descendents or what?
Almost forgot...There is a word "redut" (transliterated), in Russian, pronounced [re-'doo-t]. Meaning military defensive structure. It's borrowed, you know from where.


Viktor V. Trukov

Hi immigrantus - welcome.

Yes, some form of 'dwo' is common to all IE languages. Sanskrit, for example, has dwau (masc) and dwe (fem) or (neut). I guess the latter is also used if you are referring to a mixed pair!

Please keep posting - as wwh would say, "we need all the talent we can get"!

the russian word tzar, is related to the german kaiser, which comes from the roman Caeser...

Its often hard for us language illiterated to see the connections, especially when words have move from the greek, or into russian or any other language that uses a different alphabet, but the sounds are often related--if you know where to look.

Sean (shawn), is the erse for John. it seems to have no relation...but if you know that erse has no J sound, and then look a Jean (french for John.)it makes sense... as does Ivan..(a russian form of John!)

(and that about wraps up my knowledge of russian!)

Thank you for Welcome, David. Yes, in Russian too, all words have gender and "dva" and "dvoe" is male and neutral, and "dve" is female. Also word "dvoyka", pronounced [d-'voy-kah] means two, diminutive form of which is "dvoechka", etc, etc.

Viktor V. Trukov

You are right Helen! Tsar came from latin ceasar,and should be written as Zar',because it's pronounced with the first letter "z" as in "pizza" and "r" at the end is soft. No need for "T". The first tsar was Ivan "The Terrible", which is a example of one of this word meanings - "causing great fear". Peter I ("Great") changed official title Tsar for Imperator, but it didn't live well in spoken language. Both form existed, with people preferring the word tsar.
The name Ivan came to Russia with Christianity from Greek
Ioann, ultimately from Hebrew. Same did John and Co, but by slightly different rote - thru Latin.
P.s. I lived in Brooklyn,NY for three years and worked in Lower Manhattan, couple blocks from WTC. Best regards!
Viktor


Viktor V. Trukov

I have also seen Czar as an alternate spelling for Tsar (zar). There usually are dual if not multiple spellings of most words that are transfered from one alphabet to another. I have encountered many alternate spellings for Mayan, Nahuatl, etc. words. The originals were written in pictographs. Some of the strange letter combinations take a lot of practice to pronounce correctly,i.e. "atl" The "tl" is a simultanious t sound with the tip of your tounge on the roof of your mouth while softly and sharply hissing(?). Sorry, that's the best way I know to describe it and it is sadly inadequate. I guess you'll just have to corner me in Ireland for a demonstration.

welcome, Viktor!

Hello All! Roger, thank you for Welcome! I'd like to clarify some words. I realized, that I've misspelled the word "descendenTs" (or "descendants")in my first post... Yes, talent, we can't hide it... I corected it already. The only exscuse I could come up with, that it's medicalized (e.g. cervicalis descendens) due to my profession. But what for? Mistake is a mistake.
The other russian person, that you mentioned, named "Vika",
which is a short form of Viktoria, female analog of name Viktor.
As you probably know, that in Russian language, being mostly phonetic, and based on Greek alphabet, we have only one letter-"c" for [s] sound (which is enough we think).
And we have only one letter-"k" for [k] sound.So, naturally we tend to spell our names in English accordingly. By the way, we also have only one letter-"f" for [f] sound, and the only one single letter for [ch] sound in Russian, and no [w] sound, and no articles either(or neither?),
etc, etc.
Almost forgot...There is a word "redut" in Russian(transliterated), pronounced [re-'doo-t]. Meaning military defensive structure. It's borrowed, you know from where.


Viktor V. Trukov

RE:in Russian (there is)... no [w] sound

I remember reading Vl was substituded... so the man's name Walter became Vladimer...(but i am not sure how it got all the other sound, since Vladimer doesn't sound at all like any form of Walter i know.)

Irish has no W sound either, so William became Liam... (i don't know if there is a version of Walter.)

And all the old Ukrainians in my past had a lot of trouble with the "w" sound in English. They ended up saying a letter about halfway between "v" and "w". Later I found that the "v" in Turkish sounds about the same as the Ukrainian-immigrant "w".

Hi, and welcome, immigrantus!

About your nickname, it sounds so strange to my latin ears...
I would expect immigratus ( someone who already came from another country) or immigrantes ( someone who is coming now)? Do I miss some subtility?

Helen, I'd like to clarify some words. The name Vladimir (stress is on second syllable!), short form - Volodya, children's form - Vova [Vo-vah, stress is on first syllable] is genuine ancient russian, not borrowed from any language and is not substituted form of a foreign name. It has two (dva;) roots - power, or govern and the world. Means "to govern the world" or "to possess the world". Closest name form is Waldemar, not Walter, although I couldn't find the meaning of them.

Viktor V. Trukov

Apparently means powerful warrior.

Buon giorno Emanuela! Come sta? It is remnants of my former New York life, where my first job was pizza delivery in Italian pizzeria and where I was called Vittorio. I learned to make pizza, but I modified it - I make plane dough, not sourdough, from wheat or rye flour (like it dark)and put celery slices along with other ingredients (red and green pepper, tomatoes, onion, black olives, mushrooms) on it. When it's ready I put fresh slices of garlic on it.
Now about my nickname. It can be viewed by most americans as "immigrant + US" and to me it sounds like Latin. That's why I like it, due to the fact that I'm immigrant in US and dottore by education. Too bad that they didn't teach us enough Latin (to be able to speak, read and write freely) in medical institute...
Arrivederci, Viktor.

Viktor V. Trukov